Love Exposure

One of the great things about living in LA is the wonderful variety of high- to low-brow movie theaters and special screenings that take place constantly. Coming up beginning next week, Angelenos have an opportunity to catch what could possibly be the only US theater run ever for Love Exposure, a four-hour Japanese movie that Cinefamily describes in the following manner:

Ask yourself this question: when was the last time a movie really mattered to you, and shattered your world? Every so often, a film comes screaming out of the ether that magically reveals a larger truth about this thing we stumble through called life, and the latest cinematic salve is the unforgettable, uncategorizable, unmissable Love Exposure, the brand-new behemoth from Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Strange Circus) that gleefully tackles life’s biggest issues: love, death, sex, revenge, religion and up-skirt panty photography.

I had the privilege of joining some friends for recent Cinefamily screenings of Stake Land and Rammbock, and hearing Cinefamily head programmer Hadrian Belove promote it before each of those screenings has helped me overcome any apprehensions I might have had about sitting through a four-hour movie. The way he describes it, when the 237 minutes has elapsed the main feeling that will remain is a longing for even more.

There will only be seven screenings of this movie here in LA, once daily from next Friday the 13th to the following Thursday the 19th, so if you’re short on kung-fu up-skirt in your life you should get your tickets ASAP. (The youtube trailer is available by following that link.)